STAND. COM. REP. NO.463

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1354

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1354 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify how the Department of Human Services may use tobacco settlement moneys earmarked for the Department, and to make an emergency appropriation of accumulated moneys in the tobacco settlement special fund for DHS children's health programs.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services and the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committees find that the Legislature's intent in allocating a portion of the tobacco settlement moneys for the Department of Human Services was to ensure that children within the "gap group" (incomes exceeding Medicaid eligibility levels, but at or below 200% of the federal poverty level) could receive medical assistance through the State's Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The tobacco settlement moneys were not intended to supplant the State's share of the cost for the children covered under the mandatory Medicaid program.

The Department of Human Services testified that the one-time appropriation of accumulated moneys in the tobacco settlement special fund would be used for children's health programs, including the cost of providing medical assistance to children covered by the State's mandatory Medicaid program. Because the accumulated funds are unspent moneys from prior years, they cannot be used to fund medical assistance for immigrants or gap group children. Your Committees understand that this is a one-time only appropriation and believe that one-time-only use of tobacco settlement moneys to fund medical assistance for Medicaid-eligible children is an acceptable use of the tobacco settlement funds.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Amending the purpose section to reflect the Legislature's intent to authorize the one-time only distribution and use of unexpended, accumulated funds in the tobacco settlement special fund by the department of human services for children's health programs;

(2) Deleting sections 3 and 4 which amend sections 388L-1 and 328L-4, respectively;

(3) Amending the appropriation section to authorize the Department of Human Services to use the unexpended, accumulated funds from the tobacco settlement special fund for children's health programs for fiscal year 2002-2003; and

(4) Making technical nonsubstantive amendments to correct formatting.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1354, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1354, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Health,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

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SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair